Archive for the ‘B – Farmers’ Category

Exciting News! It’s spring and we’ve now got local succulent lamb from One Straw Ranch!

One Straw Ranch is shepherded by Martin and Charlotte Frederickson on rich, diverse, thoughtfully managed lands on Marrowstone Island and in Chimacum. Its name is inspired and influenced by The One Straw Revolution, a book by farmer Masanobu Fukuoka. The farm and its farmers reflect the philosophy

“O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain!“ Was I the only one who had this play in their head driving up Center Valley this summer?

Fields of tall grain swaying in the breeze on the historic Brown family dairy with the Olympic Mountains and new fire station as a backdrop. Jaw-dropping and it got me to thinking: I’ve got to talk to Finnriver’s Keith Kisler and get the scoop on this development.

Chuck and Julie have been breeding high-end registered Black Angus on their pristine 90 acre spread of West Valley bottomland since 1970. The bulk of their business consists of breeding stock sales to east-of-the-mountains ranchers

It’s official, Tamworths love Chimacum, are moving here in droves, and raising their young. To the joy of all bacon lovers, they are also crowding their way into the Corner’s “MEAT FROM HERE” locker. “What is a Tamworth?” you ask.

The Tamworth is an old heritage breed hog descended from “Irish Grazers”, an ancient European pig domesticated from wild boars that retained their ability to graze and thrive in woodlands. In 1812 a wise Englishman recognized their commercial value

As you leave Chimacum and head south along Beaver Valley on Highway 19, past the sheep farms and pastures of Solstice Farm, Bishop Dairy and Spring Hill Farm, take a right on Embody road, just past the Beaver Valley store. Near the end of the road where a road sign tells you “end of maintained county road” you come across a vegetable row crop operation named Dharma Ridge Farm. Beep the horn and out tumble Zach Wailand and Haley Olson’s kids, Farryn, age 10, Asa, age 8, and Shai, age 4. They may look typical, but

To walk around SpringRain Farm and Orchard in Chimacum, owned by John Bellow and Roxanne Hudson, is to see ambition. And a remarkable amount of vision, coupled with an equal amount of very hard work. It is especially impressive when one realizes they only bought the land and started farming it 3½ years ago.

When she first purchased her 10 acres of Beaver Valley in 2001, Jennie Watkins of Ananda Hills Farm wrote a mission statement. Her goal was to “live a life that connects me intimately with the earth, food and animals”. A vegetarian at the time, she probably didn’t fully appreciate just how intimately she would become with her animals. But she certainly was intimately connected when I visited her recently to help butcher

I recently found Gerald Bishop of the historic Bishop Dairy in upper Beaver Valley working on a recent Saturday morning. He was happy to talk, but seemed a bit distracted, since his main focus was keeping a careful eye on his various nephews and grandkids who were out driving a regular fleet of large trucks and tractors harvesting their first cutting of silage. If you haven’t noticed, the grass in Chimacum is green and lush – ideal for harvesting.

Gloria Brown of the Brown Dairy in Chimacum WA has been a Chimacum resident for over 50 years now. And she’s seen a lot of changes in those years. But one of the most significant in Chimacum will be happening in the next few years, thanks to her plans to sell 50 acres of her historic dairy farm that she and her husband BG, or “Brownie” bought in the early 1950’s and ran till their retirement in the 1990’s.